Integrated approach for the quality assessment of freshwater resources in a vineyard area (South Portugal)

Abstract

An integrated chemical and biological approach for the quality assessment of freshwater resources in a vineyard area of the 'Alentejo' region (South Portugal) is presented. This includes analysis to 11 pesticide compounds and whole toxicity testing on algae and crustaceans. Simazine, terbuthylazine, terbutryn, desethylatrazine and chlorpyrifos were the most frequently detected pesticides in water collected from wells and drainage channels. Mixtures of up to three compounds in different qualitative combinations were also found. The quality standards for individual pesticides (0.1 μg L(-1)) and pesticides-total (0.5 μg L(-1)) were exceeded in some samples. However, their maximum concentrations were lower than the WHO guidelines, the USEPA health advisory values and the environmental quality standards for priority substances applicable to surface water. In five samples, the herbicides terbuthylazine and terbutryn and the insecticide chlorpyrifos did not pass the toxicity exposure ratio (TER) trigger values specified for aquatic organisms (algae, Daphnia and fish). Maximum toxic effects on Daphnia magna (100%) and Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata (82.56%) were determined in groundwater samples, while in surface water, no toxicity was observed. Concerning effects on Heterocypris incongruens in sediment samples collected at the drainage channels, mortality and growth inhibition values were below 38%. Pro-active management of the use of pesticides is recommended for implementing at the farm and catchment level to reduce inputs into ground- and surface water.

Evaluation of Arthrobacter aurescens Strain TC1 as Bioaugmentation Bacterium in Soils Contaminated with the Herbicidal Substance Terbuthylazine

“…More environmentally relevant seems the abatement of soil eluates ecotoxicity towards a standard freshwater microalga observed upon 3 days of the bioaugmentation treatments; these results pointed to the eventual complete decontamination of the soil and thus a bioremediation efficacy of 100%. On contrary, the ecotoxicity assessment of eluates obtained from the non-bioaugmented microcosms confirmed herbicide mobilization via the soil water pathway (e.g., due to leaching and/or runoff events) [ 1 , 5 , 12 ] does pose threats to primary producers in aquatic systems, as reported by others [ 7 , 31 ]. In the present work, overall results thus suggest the environmental risk of TBA associated to the mobilization of the herbicide to aquatic ecosystems, in the event of a spill situation, can be potentially reduced or prevented by using this bioaugmentation tool, as reported before with respect to the bioremediation of ATZ-contaminated soils using Pseudomonas sp.…”

History and sensitivity comparison of two standard whole-sediment toxicity tests with crustaceans: the amphipodHyalella aztecaand the ostracodHeterocypris incongruensmicrobiotest

“…Since the commercial availability of the Ostracodtoxkit, a substantial number of studies were carried out with the standard ostracod toxicity test in different laboratories of several countries, on a variety of sediments. Findings of several of these studies have been published in the scientific literature (Latif and Licek, 2004;Dirven-van Breemen et al, 2006;Drobniewska et al, 2007;Mankiewicz-Boczek et al, 2008;Watanabe et al, 2008;Wang et al, 2009;García-Lorenzo et al, 2009;Coccia et al, 2009;Silva et al, 2011;Kudlak et al, 2011;Nalecz-Jawecki et al, 2011;Steliga, 2011;Sheahan and Fisher, 2012;Huerta Buitrago et al, 2013;Watanabe et al, 2013;Ruiz et al, 2013;Khanal et al, 2014;Sevilla et al, 2014;Palma et al, 2014). Titles, abstracts, and posters of other studies presented at international symposia on ecotoxicology can be found on the website www.microbiotests.be (Nalecz-Jawecki et al, 2009;Gonçalves et al, 2012).…”

Concentration addition-based approach for aquatic risk assessment of realistic pesticide mixtures in Portuguese river basins

“…Pesticide compounds selected for the study Twenty one herbicides, five insecticides and three metabolites were selected in this study due to their indication in the list of priority substances in the field of water policy (EC 2013), their amount sold in Portugal (DGAV 2014) since 2002, their approval for use in the main crops of the studied agricultural areas (see above section), their detection in previous studies performed in Portugal Batista et al 2001Batista et al , 2002Cerejeira et al 2000Cerejeira et al , 2003Silva et al 2006Silva et al , 2011Silva et al , 2012a and/or their inclusion in the priority list defined in the European project 'Optimization and evaluation of multiresidue methods for priority pesticides in drinking and related waters' (Jaskulké et al 1999).…”